A Late 2025 TBR and Watchlist

setting completely unrealistic goals and asking for recommendations

Like a lot of people, I enjoy making lists, and they help me organize my life, so today I’m making a list of everything that I want to read and watch this year. This list is insanely long and unrealistic—I would have to read more than one book per week, and watch like 10 episodes of various shows every day just to get close to finishing everything. I won’t beat myself over if I can’t complete most of the things here, I’m trying to take it easy.

I’m making this post just so I can gather all the things that have been recommended to me or that I have been curious about and that I want to hopefully get to before 2026, and I’m also letting you guys know what the rest of 2025 is going to look like here on Maria’s Corner. Despite how unreasonably long this list is, there are still some gaps, and I’d love to get your recommendations. As the year progresses, I will update this post and cross out what I have already finished and adding any new things that catch my attention.

This project was inspired by

The Unserious Writer

’s new series, check out their page to see their own version, it’s different from what I’m doing but I want to recognize where I got the inspiration from.

Without further ado, let’s begin.

What I Want to Read.

Books.

• Saga of the Borderlands Trilogy by Liliana Bodoc.

• Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson.

• His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.

• The Sword of Kaigen by M. L. Wang.

• Pet by Awkaeke Emezi.

• Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel by Susanna Clarke.

• The Rosewater Trilogy by Tade Thompson.

• The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu.

• The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin.

• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin.

• Anhilitation by Jeff VanderMeer.

• The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson.

• The Road Through the Wall by Shirley Jackson.

• The Daughter of Dr. Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

• My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones.

• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

• Night and Day by Virginia Woolf.

• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.

• The Waves by Virginia Woolf.

• The Vegetarian by Han Kang.

• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

• The Devil Finds Work by James Baldwin.

• Another Country by James Baldwin.

• Minor Detail by Adania Shibli.

• Beloved by Toni Morrison.

• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

• Simpatia by Rodrigo Blanco Calderon.

• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

• Cidade de Deus by Paulo Lins.

• Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior.

• Las Lanzas Coloradas by Arturo Uslar Pietri.

• The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.

• Demian by Herman Hesse.

• Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano.

• Babel by R. F. Kuang.

• The Seventh Veil of Salomé by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

• Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes by Rob Wilkins.

• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky.

• Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right by Angela Nagle.

• A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin (reread).

• The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel.

• Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal by Mohammed El-Kurd.

• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

• Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis.

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner.

• Are Prisons Obsolete by Angela Davis.

• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi.

• Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon.

• Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire.

• Unfortunately, it was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish.

• Zoo by Otsuichi.

• Dubliners by James Joyce.

• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez.

• Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar.

One of my main priorities is to read more diverse authors. I also want to dive into more Latin American literature, specially from Venezuela and Brazil, my two homes, and read more non-fiction. Not included in this list is the Shadowhunter Chronicles series by Cassandra Clare, because I’m still debating whether to continue with my reread.

Manga.

• The Guy She was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All by Sumiko Arai.

• Bloom Into You by Nio Nakatani.

• A Tropical Fish Years for Snow by Makoto Hagino.

• I’m In Love With the Villainess by Inori and Hanagata.

• Teppu by Moare Ohta.

• Girls Last Tour by Tsukumizu.

• Go For It, Nakamura! by Syundei.

• Berserk by Kentaro Miura.

• Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.

• Hell’s Paradise by Yuji Kaku.

• NANA by Ai Yazawa.

• Tomie by Junji Ito.

• PSTD Radio by Masaaki Nakayama.

• Akane-Banashi by Yuki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue.

• Chihayafuru by Yuki Suetsugu.

• Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura.

• Children of the Whales by Abi Umeda.

• 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa.

• Billy Bat by Naoki Urasawa.

• Goodnight Punpun by Inio Asano.

I really want to read more shojo and josei titles, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know! I have always gravitated towards shōnen, as anyone can tell by looking at my posts, but I want to expand my horizons.

Comics.

• Poison Ivy (2022) by G. Willow Wilson and Marcio Takara.

• Maus by Art Spiegelman.

• Batman: Under the Hood by Judd Winick and Doug Mahnke.

• Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera.

• It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth by Zoe Thorogood.

• The Department of Truth by James Tynion IV.

• Palestine by Joe Sacco.

• Hellboy in Hell by Mike Mignola.

• Swamp Thing by Alan Moore.

• V for Vendetta by Alan Moore.

• Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang.

Besides these specific series, I’m planning to dive into Jason Todd’s chronology, and hopefully make my way through some X-Men stuff. I’m still pretty new to comics, so I’d appreciate any pointers.

Other.

• The Flower That Bloomed Nowhere by Lurina (web serial).

• Worm by John C. McCrae (web serial).

• Re: Zero by Tappei Nagatsuki (light novels).

I also want to read some serials here on Substack, if I get the time.

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What I Want to Watch.

Shows.

• Severance.

• Fleabag.

• Flip Flappers.

• Princess Tutu.

• Serial Experiments Lain.

• Otherside Picnic.

• Monster.

• FLCL.

• From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!

• Wotakoi.

• Les Miserables: Shojo Cosette (did you guys know there’s an anime adaptation of Les Mis?).

• Paranoia Agent.

• Twin Peaks.

• Succession.

• Mars Red.

• Primal.

• Scavengers Reign.

This, obviously, doesn’t even include all the ongoing and upcoming anime that I am/will be watching this year… chat am I cooked?

Movies.

• The Fall dir. by Tarsem Singh.

• The Tragedy of Macbeth dir. by Joel Coen.

• The Iron Claw dir. by Sean Durkin.

• Queer dir. by Luca Guadagnino.

• Challengers dir. by Luca Guadagnino.

• La Chimera dir. by Alice Rohrwacher.

• I Saw The Tv Glow dir. by Jane Schoenbrun.

• Me Estás Matando Susana dir. by Roberto Sneider.

• Heathers dir. by Michael Lehmann.

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire dir. by Céline Sciamma.

• Crossing dir. by Levan Akin.

• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre dir. by Tobe Hooper.

• Shiva Baby dir. by Emma Seligman.

• O Que É Isso, Companheiro? dir. by Bruno Barreto.

• Central do Brasil dir. by Walter Salles.

• Diarios de Motocicleta dir. by Walter Salles.

• The Substance dir. by Coralie Fargeat.

• Paris is Burning dir. by Jennie Livingston.

• Supernova dir. by Harry MacQueen.

• Festen dir. by Thomas Vinterberg.

• La Planète Sauvage dir. by René Laloux.

• Malcom X dir. by Spike Lee.

• Inland Empire dir. by David Lynch.

• Eraserhead dir. by David Lynch.

• In the Mood for Love dir. by Wong Kar Wai

• Aftersun dir. by Charlotte Wells.

• Flow dir. by Gints Zilbalodis.

• One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island dir. by Mamoru Hosoda.

• The Handmaiden dir. by Chan-Wook Park.

• Moonlight dir. by Barry Jenkins.

• Look Back dir. by Kiyotaka Oshiyama.

• Lisa Frankenstein dir. by Zelda Williams.

• Bottoms dir. by Emma Seligman.

• The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim dir. by Kenji Kamiyama.

• The Glassworker dir. by Usman Riaz.

• Blue Giant dir. by Yuzuru Tachikawa.

• Paprika dir. by Satoshi Kon.

• Perfect Blue dir. by Satoshi Kon.

• Millenium Actress dir. by Satoshi Kon.

• Tokyo Godfathers dir. by Satoshi Kon.

• Nickel Boys dir. by RaMell Ross.

• 10 Things I Hate About You dir. by Gil Junger.

• Romeo + Juliet dir. by Baz Luhrmann.

• Clueless dir. by Amy Heckerling.

• Persepolis dir. by Vincent Paronnaud.

• The Truman Show dir. by Peter Weir.

• The Vourdalak dir. by Adrien Beau.

• Grave of the Fireflies dir. by Isao Takahata.

• Only Yesterday dir. by Isao Takahata.

• Pom Poko dir. by Isao Takahata.

• My Neighbors the Yamadas dir. by Isao Takahata.

• Tales from Earthsea dir. by Goro Miyazaki.

• When Marnie Was There dir. by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

I’m terrible at watching movies, for some reason it’s really hard for me to sit down for 2–3 hours to watch one thing, but I’m making an effort to fix that. For now, I’m trying to watch at least a couple movies every month, but ideally I’d like to watch one every week. There’s also a few upcoming movies that I want to watch, but this list is already long enough.

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Alright! That’s it for now. This is quite an ambitious project, but I have made peace with the fact that I’ll probably only get to cover about a third of everything here. There’s a little bit of everything, so I’m going to try to group things by themes/genre, that way the monthly wrap-ups won’t be all over the place. Let me know if any of the things I mentioned are on your own TBR/Watchlist, and if you have any recommendations you think I’d enjoy.

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